HinduismHinduism under both
HinduHindu and Islamic rulers from c. 1200 to 1750 CE,
saw the increasing prominence of the
BhaktiBhakti movement, which remains
influential today. The colonial period saw the emergence of various
HinduHindu reform movements partly inspired by western movements, such as
UnitarianismUnitarianism and
Theosophy . The
Partition of IndiaPartition of India in 1947 was along
religious lines, with the
Republic of India emerging with a Hindu
majority. During the 20th century, due to the Indian diaspora , Hindu
minorities have formed in all continents, with the largest communities
in absolute numbers in the United States and the United Kingdom . In
the Republic of India,
HinduHindu nationalism has emerged as a strong
political force since the 1980s, the
Hindutva Bharatiya Janata Party
forming the Government of
IndiaIndia from 1999 to 2004, and its first state
government in South
IndiaIndia in 2006, and also the
Narendra Modi led
Government from 2014.

Western scholars regard
HinduismHinduism as a fusion or synthesis of
various Indian cultures and traditions. Among its roots are the
historical Vedic religion of
Iron Age India itself already the
product of "a composite of the Indo-Aryan and Harappan cultures and
civilizations", but also the
Sramana or renouncer traditions of
northeast
IndiaIndia , and mesolithic and neolithic cultures of India,
such as the religions of the
Indus Valley CivilisationIndus Valley Civilisation , Dravidian
traditions, and the local traditions and tribal religions .

After the Vedic period, between 500 -200 BCE and c. 300 CE, at the
beginning of the "Epic and Puranic" c.q. "Preclassical" period, the
"
HinduHindu synthesis" emerged, which incorporated śramaṇic and
Buddhist influences and the emerging bhakti tradition into the
Brahmanical fold via the smriti literature. This synthesis emerged
under the pressure of the success of
BuddhismBuddhism and Jainism. During the
GuptaGupta reign the first
PuranasPuranas were written, which were used to
disseminate "mainstream religious ideology amongst pre-literate and
tribal groups undergoing acculturation." The resulting Puranic
HinduismHinduism differed markedly from the earlier Brahmanism of the
Dharmaśāstras and the smritis.
HinduismHinduism co-existed for several
centuries with Buddhism, to finally gain the upper hand at all levels
in the 8th century.

From northern
IndiaIndia this "
HinduHindu synthesis", and its societal
divisions, spread to southern
IndiaIndia and parts of
Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asia .
It was aided by the settlement of Brahmins on land granted by local
rulers, the incorporation and assimilation of popular non-Vedic
gods, and the process of
Sanskritization , in which "people from
many strata of society throughout the subcontinent tended to adapt
their religious and social life to Brahmanic norms". This process
of assimilation explains the wide diversity of local cultures in India
"half shrouded in a taddered cloak of conceptual unity."

James Mill (1773–1836), in his The History of British
IndiaIndia (1817),
distinguished three phases in the history of India, namely Hindu,
MuslimMuslim and British civilisations. This periodisation has been
criticised, for the misconceptions it has given rise to. Another
periodisation is the division into "ancient, classical, medieval and
modern periods", although this periodization has also received
criticism.

Romila Thapar notes that the division of Hindu-Muslim-British periods
of Indian history gives too much weight to "ruling dynasties and
foreign invasions," neglecting the social-economic history which
often showed a strong continuity. The division in
Ancient-Medieval-Modern overlooks the fact that the Muslim-conquests
took place between the eight and the fourteenth century, while the
south was never completely conquered. According to Thapar, a
periodisation could also be based on "significant social and economic
changes," which are not strictly related to a change of ruling powers.

Smart and Michaels seem to follow Mill's periodisation, while Flood
and Muesse follow the "ancient, classical, medieval and modern
periods" periodisation. An elaborate periodisation may be as follows:

* Medieval Period (c. 1200-1500 CE);
* Early Modern Period (c. 1500-1850);
* Modern period (
British RajBritish Raj and independence) (from c. 1850).

HISTORY OF HINDUISM

James Mill (1773–1836), in his The History of British India
(1817), distinguished three phases in the history of India, namely
Hindu,
MuslimMuslim and British civilisations. This periodisation has been
influential, but has also been criticised, for the misconceptions it
has given rise to. Another influential periodisation is the division
into "ancient, classical, mediaeval and modern periods".

NOTES Smart and Michaels seem to follow Mill's periodisation
(Michaels mentions Flood 1996 as a source for "Prevedic Religions". ),
while Flood and Muesse follow the "ancient, classical, mediaeval
and modern periods" periodisation.

Different periods are designated as "classical Hinduism":

* Smart calls the period between 1000 BCE and 100 CE
"pre-classical". It's the formative period for the
Upanishads and
Brahmanism (Smart distinguishes "Brahmanism" from the Vedic religion,
connecting "Brahmanism" with the Upanishads. ),
JainismJainism and Buddhism.
For Smart, the "classical period" lasts from 100 to 1000 CE, and
coincides with the flowering of "classical Hinduism" and the flowering
and deterioration of Mahayana-buddhism in India.
* For Michaels, the period between 500 BCE and 200 BCE is a time of
"Ascetic reformism", whereas the period between 200 BCE and 1100 CE
is the time of "classical Hinduism", since there is "a turning point
between the Vedic religion and
HinduHindu religions".
* Muesse discerns a longer period of change, namely between 800 BCE
and 200 BCE, which he calls the "Classical Period". According to
Muesse, some of the fundamental concepts of Hinduism, namely karma,
reincarnation and "personal enlightenment and transformation", which
did not exist in the Vedic religion, developed in this time.

Anatomically modern humans are thought to have arrived in South India
about 75,000 – 60,000 years back, during Paleolithic times. These
people were Australoids who may have been closely related to
Aboriginal Australians . They are probably almost extinct or largely
covered by successive waves.

After the Australoids, Caucasoids , including both Elamo-Dravidians
(c. 4,000 to 6,000 BCE) and
Indo-Aryans (c.2,000 -1,500 BCE ), and
Mongoloids (Sino-Tibetans ) immigrated into India. The
Elamo-Dravidians possibly from
ElamElam , present-day Iran, and the
Tibeto-Burmans possibly from the Himalayan and north-eastern borders
of the subcontinent.

The earliest prehistoric religion in
IndiaIndia that may have left its
traces in
HinduismHinduism comes from mesolithic as observed in the sites such
as the rock paintings of
Bhimbetka rock shelters dating to a period of
30,000 BCE or older, as well as neolithic times. Some of the
religious practices can be considered to have originated in 4,000 BCE.
Several tribal religions still exist, though "e must not assume that
there are many similarities between prehistoric and contemporary
tribal communities".

Many Indus valley seals show animals. One seal shows a horned figure
seated in a posture reminiscent of the
Lotus positionLotus position and surrounded
by animals was named by early excavators "
PashupatiPashupati ", an epithet of
the later
HinduHindu gods
ShivaShiva and
RudraRudra . Writing in 1997, Doris Meth
Srinivasan said, "Not too many recent studies continue to call the
seal's figure a "Proto-Siva," rejecting thereby Marshall's package of
proto-
ShivaShiva features, including that of three heads. She interprets
what John Marshall interpreted as facial as not human but more bovine,
possibly a divine buffalo-man. According to
Iravatham Mahadevan ,
symbols 47 and 48 of his Indus script glossary The Indus Script:
Texts, Concordance and Tables (1977), representing seated human-like
figures, could describe the South Indian deity
MuruganMurugan .

In view of the large number of figurines found in the Indus valley,
some scholars believe that the Harappan people worshipped a mother
goddess symbolizing fertility, a common practice among rural Hindus
even today. However, this view has been disputed by S. Clark who sees
it as an inadequate explanation of the function and construction of
many of the figurines.

There are no religious buildings or evidence of elaborate burials...
If there were temples, they have not been identified. However, House
- 1 in HR-A area in Mohenjadaro's Lower Town has been identified as a
possible temple.

The commonly proposed period of earlier Vedic age is dated back to
2nd millennium BCE.
Vedism was the sacrificial religion of the early
Indo-Aryans , speakers of early
Old Indic dialects, ultimately
deriving from the
Proto-Indo-Iranian peoples of the Bronze Age.

The
Yamna cultureYamna culture 3500-2000 BC. Scheme of
Indo-European migrations from ca. 4000 to 1000 BCE according to the
Kurgan hypothesis . The magenta area corresponds to the assumed
Urheimat (
Samara culture ,
Sredny Stog culture ). The red area
corresponds to the area which may have been settled by
Indo-European-speaking peoples up to ca. 2500 BCE; the orange area to
1000 BCE. (Christopher I. Beckwith (2009), Empires of the Silk Road,
Oxford University Press, p.30) Map of the approximate maximal
extent of the Andronovo culture. The formative Sintashta-Petrovka
culture is shown in darker red. The location of the earliest spoke
-wheeled chariot finds is indicated in purple. Adjacent and
overlapping cultures (
Afanasevo culture ,
Srubna cultureSrubna culture ,
BMAC ) are
shown in green. Archaeological cultures associated with
Indo-Iranian migrations (after EIEC ). The Andronovo ,
BMAC and Yaz
cultures have often been associated with Indo-Iranian migrations. The
GGC , Cemetery H , Copper Hoard and PGW cultures are candidates for
cultures associated with Indo-Aryan movements. Early Vedic
Period.

The Vedic period, named after the Vedic religion of the
Indo-Aryans ,
lasted from c. 1750 to 500 BCE. The
Indo-Aryans were a branch of
the
Indo-European language family, which many scholars believe
originated in
Kurgan culture of the Central Asian steppes .
Indeed, the Vedic religion, including the names of certain deities,
was in essence a branch of the same religious tradition as the ancient
Greeks, Romans, Persians, and Germanic peoples. For example, the Vedic
god
Dyaus PitaDyaus Pita is a variant of the Proto-Indo-European god *Dyēus
ph2ter (or simply *Dyēus), from which also derive the Greek
ZeusZeus and
the Roman Jupiter . Similarly the Vedic Manu and Yama derive from the
PIE *Manu and *Yemo, from which also derive the Germanic
Mannus and
YmirYmir .

The
Indo-Aryans split-off around 1800-1600 BCE from the Iranians,
where-after they were defeated and split into two groups by the
Iranians, who dominated the Central Eurasian steppe zone and "chased
them to the extermities of Central Eurasia." One group were the
Indo-Aryans who founded the
Mitanni kingdom in northern Syria
(ca.1500-1300 BCE). The other group were the Vedic people, who were
pursued by the Iranians "across the Near East to the Levant (the lands
of the eastern Mediterranean littoral), across Iran into India."

During the Early
Vedic periodVedic period (c. 1500 - 1100 BCE ) Vedic tribes were
pastoralists, wandering around in north-west India. After 1100 BCE,
with the introduction of iron, the Vedic tribes moved into the western
Ganges Plain, adapting an agrarian lifestyle. Rudimentary
state-forms appeared, of which the Kuru -tribe and realm was the most
influential. It was a tribal union, which developed into the first
recorded state-level society in
South AsiaSouth Asia around 1000 BCE. It
decisively changed the Vedic heritage of the early Vedic period,
collecting the Vedic hymns into collections, and developing new
rituals which gained their position in
Indian civilization as the
orthodox srauta rituals, which contributed to the so-called
"classical synthesis" or "
HinduHindu synthesis" .

RIGVEDIC RELIGION

The
Indo-Aryans brought with them their language and religion. The
Vedic beliefs and practices of the pre-classical era were closely
related to the hypothesised
Proto-Indo-European religion , and the
Indo-Iranian religion. According to Anthony, the
Old Indic religion
probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the contact zone
between the
Zeravshan River (present-day
UzbekistanUzbekistan ) and
(present-day) Iran. It was "a syncretic mixture of old Central Asian
and new Indo-European elements", which borrowed "distinctive
religious beliefs and practices" from the Bactria–
Margiana Culture
. At least 383 non-Indo-European words were borrowed from this
culture, including the god
IndraIndra and the ritual drink Soma .
According to Anthony,

Many of the qualities of Indo-Iranian god of might/victory,
Verethraghna , were transferred to the adopted god Indra, who became
the central deity of the developing
Old Indic culture.
IndraIndra was the
subject of 250 hymns, a quarter of the Rig Veda. He was associated
more than any other deity with Soma, a stimulant drug (perhaps derived
from Ephedra) probably borrowed from the
BMAC religion. His rise to
prominence was a peculiar trait of the
Old Indic speakers.

The oldest inscriptions in Old Indic, the language of the Rig Veda,
are found not in northwestern
IndiaIndia and Pakistan, but in northern
Syria, the location of the
Mitanni kingdom. The
Mitanni kings took
Old Indic throne names, and used
Old Indic technical terms were used
for horse-riding and chariot-driving. The
Old Indic term r\'ta ,
meaning "cosmic order and truth", the central concept of the Rig Veda,
was also employed in the mitanni kingdom. And
Old Indic gods,
including
IndraIndra , were also known in the
Mitanni kingdom.

Their religion was further developed when they migrated into the
Ganges Plain after c. 1100 BCE and became settled farmers, further
syncretising with the native cultures of northern India. The Vedic
religion of the later
Vedic periodVedic period co-existed with local religions,
such as the
Yaksha cults, and was itself the product of "a
composite of the indo-Aryan and Harappan cultures and civilizations".
David Gordon White cites three other mainstream scholars who "have
emphatically demonstrated" that Vedic religion is partially derived
from the Indus Valley Civilizations . Their religion was further
developed when they migrated into the Ganges Plain after c. 1100 BCE
and became settled farmers, further syncretising with the native
cultures of northern India.

Vedas

Its liturgy is preserved in the three Vedic Samhitas : the
Rig-Veda ,
Sama-Veda and the
Yajur-Veda . The Vedic texts were the texts of the
elite, and do not necessarily represent popular ideas or practices.
Of these, the
Rig-Veda is the oldest, a collection of hymns composed
between ca. 1500-1200 BCE. The other two add ceremonial detail for
the performance of the actual sacrifice. The
Atharva-VedaAtharva-Veda may also
contain compositions dating to before 1000 BCE. It contains material
pertinent to domestic ritual and folk magic of the period.

These texts, as well as the voluminous commentary on orthopraxy
collected in the
Brahmanas compiled during the early 1st millennium
BCE, were transmitted by oral tradition alone until the advent, in the
4th century AD, of the
PallavaPallava and
GuptaGupta period and by a combination
of written and oral tradition since then.

...go back to a hoary antiquity. The Vedas, the Brahmanas, the
Grhyasutras, the Dharmasutras, the Smritis and other treatises
describe the rites, ceremonies and customs.

The earliest text of the
Vedas is the
RigvedaRigveda , a collection of
poetic hymns used in the sacrificial rites of
Vedic priesthood . Many
Rigvedic hymns concern the fire ritual (
Agnihotra ) and especially the
offering of Soma to the gods (
Somayajna ). Soma is both an intoxicant
and a god itself, as is the sacrificial fire,
AgniAgni . The royal horse
sacrifice (
Ashvamedha ) is a central rite in the
Yajurveda .

The gods in the
Rig-Veda are mostly personified concepts, who fall
into two categories: the devas – who were gods of nature – such as
the weather deity
IndraIndra (who is also the King of the gods), Agni
("fire"), Usha ("dawn"),
SuryaSurya ("sun") and Apas ("waters") on the one
hand, and on the other hand the asuras – gods of moral concepts –
such as Mitra ("contract"),
Aryaman (guardian of guest, friendship and
marriage),
Bhaga ("share") or
VarunaVaruna , the supreme
Asura (or Aditya).
While Rigvedic deva is variously applied to most gods, including many
of the Asuras, the Devas are characterised as Younger Gods while
Asuras are the Older Gods (pūrve devāḥ). In later Vedic texts, the
Asuras become demons.

The
RigvedaRigveda has 10 Mandalas ('books'). There is significant variation
in the language and style between the family books (RV books 2–7),
book 8 , the "Soma Mandala" (RV 9 ), and the more recent books 1 and
10 . The older books share many aspects of common Indo-Iranian
religion, and is an important source for the reconstruction of earlier
common Indo-European traditions . Especially RV 8 has striking
similarity to the
AvestaAvesta , containing allusions to Afghan Flora and
Fauna, e.g. to camels (úṣṭra- =
Avestan uštra). Many of the
central religious terms in
Vedic Sanskrit have cognates in the
religious vocabulary of other Indo-European languages (deva: Latin
deus; hotar : Germanic god ; asura: Germanic ansuz ; yajna : Greek
hagios; brahman : Norse
Bragi or perhaps Latin flamen etc.).
Especially notable is the fact, that in the
AvestaAvestaAsura (Ahura) is
known as good and Deva (Daeva) as evil entity, quite the opposite of
the RigVeda.

Cosmic Order

Ethics in the
Vedas are based on the concepts of
Satya and
Rta .
Satya is the principle of integration rooted in the Absolute. Ṛta
is the expression of Satya, which regulates and coordinates the
operation of the universe and everything within it. Conformity with
Ṛta would enable progress whereas its violation would lead to
punishment. Panikkar remarks:

Ṛta is the ultimate foundation of everything; it is "the supreme",
although this is not to be understood in a static sense. It is the
expression of the primordial dynamism that is inherent in
everything...."

The term "dharma" was already used in Brahmanical thought, where it
was conceived as an aspect of
Rta . The term rta is also known from
the
Proto-Indo-Iranian religion , the religion of the Indo-Iranian
peoples prior to the earliest Vedic (Indo-Aryan) and Zoroastrian
(Iranian) scriptures.
Asha (aša) is the
Avestan language term
corresponding to
Vedic language ṛta .

Upanishads

The 9th and 8th centuries BCE witnessed the composition of the
earliest Upanishads. :183
Upanishads form the theoretical basis of
classical
HinduismHinduism and are known as
VedantaVedanta (conclusion of the
VedaVeda ).
The older
Upanishads launched attacks of increasing intensity on the
rituals, however, a philosophical and allegorical meaning is also
given to these rituals. In some later
Upanishads there is a spirit of
accommodation towards rituals. The tendency which appears in the
philosophical hymns of the
Vedas to reduce the number of gods to one
principle becomes prominent in the Upanishads. The diverse monistic
speculations of the
Upanishads were synthesised into a theistic
framework by the sacred
HinduHindu scripture
Bhagavad GitaBhagavad Gita .

In
Iron Age India , during a period roughly spanning the 10th to 6th
centuries BCE, the
MahajanapadasMahajanapadas arise from the earlier petty kingdoms
of the various
Rigvedic tribes , and the failing remnants of the Late
Harappan culture. In this period the mantra portions of the
Vedas are
largely completed, and a flowering industry of Vedic priesthood
organised in numerous schools (shakha ) develops exegetical
literature, viz. the
Brahmanas . These schools also edited the Vedic
mantra portions into fixed recensions, that were to be preserved
purely by oral tradition over the following two millennia.

Increasing urbanisation of
IndiaIndia in the 7th and 6th centuries BCE led
to the rise of new ascetic or sramana movements which challenged the
orthodoxy of rituals. Mahavira (c. 549–477 BCE), proponent of
JainismJainism , and
BuddhaBuddha (c. 563-483 BCE), founder of
BuddhismBuddhism , were the
most prominent icons of this movement. :184 According to Heinrich
Zimmer ,
JainismJainism and
BuddhismBuddhism are part of the pre-Vedic heritage,
which also includes
SamkhyaSamkhya and Yoga:

does not derive from Brahman-Aryan sources, but reflects the
cosmology and anthropology of a much older pre-Aryan upper class of
northeastern
IndiaIndia - being rooted in the same subsoil of archaic
metaphysical speculation as Yoga, Sankhya, and Buddhism, the other
non-Vedic Indian systems.

The
Sramana tradition in part created the concept of the cycle of
birth and death, the concept of samsara , and the concept of
liberation, which became characteristic for Hinduism.

Pratt notes that Oldenberg (1854-1920), Neumann (1865-1915) and
RadhakrishnanRadhakrishnan (1888-1975) believed that the Buddhist canon had been
influenced by Upanishads, while la Vallee Poussin thinks the influence
was nihil, and "Eliot and several others insist that on some points
the
BuddhaBuddha was directly antithetical to the Upanishads".

Since Vedic times, "people from many strata of society throughout the
subcontinent tended to adapt their religious and social life to
Brahmanic norms", a process sometimes called
Sanskritization . It is
reflected in the tendency to identify local deities with the gods of
the
SanskritSanskrit texts.

Between 500 -200 BCE and c. 300 CE developed the "
HinduHindu synthesis",
which incorporated Sramanic and Buddhist influences and the
emerging bhakti tradition into the Brahmanical fold via the smriti
literature. This synthesis emerged under the pressure of the success
of
BuddhismBuddhism and Jainism.

According to Embree, several other religious traditions had existed
side by side with the Vedic religion. These indigenous religions
"eventually found a place under the broad mantle of the Vedic
religion". When Brahmanism was declining and had to compete with
BuddhismBuddhism and Jainism, the popular religions had the opportunity to
assert themselves. According to Embree,

he Brahmanists themselves seem to have encouraged this development to
some extent as a means of meeting the challenge of the heterodox
movements. At the same time, among the indigenous religions, a common
allegiance to the authority of the
VedaVeda provided a thin, but
nonetheless significant, thread of unity amid their variety of gods
and religious practices.

Smriti

According to Larson, the Brahmins responded with assimilation and
consolidation. This is reflected in the smriti literature which took
shape in this period. The smriti texts of the period between 200
BCE-100 CE proclaim the authority of the
Vedas , and acceptance of the
Vedas became a central criterium for defining
HinduismHinduism over and
against the heterodoxies, which rejected the Vedas. Most of the basic
ideas and practices of classical
HinduismHinduism derive from the new smriti
literature.

Of the six
HinduHindu darsanas, the
MimamsaMimamsa and the
VedantaVedanta "are rooted
primarily in the Vedic sruti tradition and are sometimes called smarta
schools in the sense that they develop smarta orthodox current of
thoughts that are based, like smriti, directly on sruti. According to
Hiltebeitel, "the consolidation of
HinduismHinduism takes place under the sign
of bhakti". It is the Bhagavadgita that seals this achievement. The
result is an "universal achievement" that may be called smarta . It
views
ShivaShiva and
VishnuVishnu as "complementary in their functions but
ontologically identical".

The major
SanskritSanskrit epics,
RamayanaRamayana and
Mahabharata , which belong to
the smriti, were compiled over a protracted period during the late
centuries BCE and the early centuries CE. They contain mythological
stories about the rulers and wars of ancient India, and are
interspersed with religious and philosophical treatises. The later
PuranasPuranas recount tales about devas and devis , their interactions with
humans and their battles against rakshasa . The
Bhagavad GitaBhagavad Gita "seals
the achievement" of the "consolidation of Hinduism", integrating
Brahmanic and sramanic ideas with theistic devotion.

During this period, power was centralised, along with a growth of far
distance trade, standardization of legal procedures, and general
spread of literacy.
MahayanaMahayanaBuddhismBuddhism flourished, but orthodox
BrahmanaBrahmana culture began to be rejuvenated by the patronage of the Gupta
Dynasty, who were Vaishnavas. The position of the Brahmans was
reinforced, the first
HinduHindu temples dedicated to the gods of the
HinduHindu deities , emerged during the late
GuptaGupta age. During the Gupta
reign the first
PuranasPuranas were written, which were used to disseminate
"mainstream religious ideology amongst pre-literate and tribal groups
undergoing acculturation." The Guptas patronised the newly emerging
Puranic religion, seeking legitimacy for their dynasty. The resulting
Puranic Hinduism, differed markedly from the earlier Brahmanism of the
Dharmasastras and the smritis.

According to P.S. Sharma "the
GuptaGupta and Harsha periods form really,
from the strictly intellectual standpoint, the most brilliant epocha
in the development of Indian philosophy", as
HinduHindu and Buddhist
philosophies flourished side by side.
Charvaka , the atheistic
materialist school, came to the fore in North
IndiaIndia before the 8th
century CE.

The
GuptaGupta period (4th to 6th centuries) saw a flowering of
scholarship, the emergence of the classical schools of Hindu
philosophy , and of classical
Sanskrit literature in general on topics
ranging from medicine, veterinary science, mathematics, to astrology
and astronomy and astrophysics. The famous
AryabhataAryabhata and Varahamihira
belong to this age. The
GuptaGupta established a strong central government
which also allowed a degree of local control.
GuptaGupta society was
ordered in accordance with
HinduHindu beliefs. This included a strict caste
system, or class system. The peace and prosperity created under Gupta
leadership enabled the pursuit of scientific and artistic endeavors.

The Pallavas (4th to 9th centuries) were, alongside the Guptas of the
North , patronisers of
SanskritSanskrit in the South of the Indian
subcontinent . The
PallavaPallava reign saw the first Sankrit inscriptions in
a script called Grantha . Early Pallavas had different connexions to
Southeast Asian countries. The Pallavas used Dravidian architecture to
build some very important
HinduHindu temples and academies in Mamallapuram
,
KanchipuramKanchipuram and other places; their rule saw the rise of great
poets, who are as famous as
KalidasaKalidasa .

The practice of dedicating temples to different deities came into
vogue followed by fine artistic temple architecture and sculpture (see
Vastu
Shastra ).

For more than a thousand years, Indian Hindu/Buddhist influence was
therefore the major factor that brought a certain level of cultural
unity to the various countries of the region. The Pali and Sanskrit
languages and the Indian script, together with
Theravada and Mahayana
BuddhismBuddhism , Brahmanism and
HinduismHinduism , were transmitted from direct
contact as well as through sacred texts and Indian literature, such as
the
RamayanaRamayana and the
Mahabharata epics.

From the 5th to the 13th century, South-East Asia had very powerful
Indian colonial empires and became extremely active in
HinduHindu and
Buddhist architectural and artistic creation. The
Sri Vijaya Empire to
the south and the
Khmer Empire to the north competed for influence.

Langkasuka (-langkha
SanskritSanskrit for "resplendent land" -sukkha of
"bliss") was an ancient
HinduHindu kingdom located in the
Malay Peninsula .
The kingdom, along with Old
Kedah settlement, are probably the
earliest territorial footholds founded on the Malay Peninsula.
According to tradition, the founding of the kingdom happened in the
2nd century; Malay legends claim that
Langkasuka was founded at Kedah
, and later moved to Pattani .

Funan was a pre-
AngkorAngkor Cambodian kingdom, located around the Mekong
delta, probably established by
Mon-Khmer settlers speaking an
AustroasiaticAustroasiatic language. According to reports by two Chinese envoys,
K\'ang T\'ai and Chu Ying , the state was established by an Indian
BrahminBrahmin named
Kaundinya , who in the 1st century CE was given
instruction in a dream to take a magic bow from a temple and defeat a
Khmer queen, Soma . Soma, the daughter of the king of the Nagas ,
married
Kaundinya and their lineage became the royal dynasty of Funan.
The myth had the advantage of providing the legitimacy of both an
Indian
BrahminBrahmin and the divinity of the cobras, who at that time were
held in religious regard by the inhabitants of the region.

The kingdom of
Champa (or Lin-yi in Chinese records) controlled what
is now south and central
VietnamVietnam from approximately 192 through 1697.
The dominant religion of the Cham people was
HinduismHinduism and the culture
was heavily influenced by India.

Later, from the 9th to the 13th century, the
MahayanaMahayana Buddhist and
HinduHinduKhmer Empire dominated much of the South-East Asian peninsula.
Under the Khmer, more than 900 temples were built in
CambodiaCambodia and in
neighboring Thailand.
AngkorAngkor was at the centre of this development,
with a temple complex and urban organisation able to support around
one million urban dwellers. The largest temple complex of the world,
AngkorAngkor Wat, stands here; built by the king Vishnuvardhan.

LATE-CLASSICAL HINDUISM - PURANIC HINDUISM (C. 650-1200 CE)

See also Late-Classical Age .

After the end of the
Gupta EmpireGupta Empire and the collapse of the Harsha
Empire, power became decentralised in India. Several larger kingdoms
emerged, with "countless vasal states". The kingdoms were ruled via
a feudal system. Smaller kingdoms were dependent on the protection of
the larger kingdoms. "The great king was remote, was exalted and
deified", as reflected in the Tantric
Mandala , which could also
depict the king as the centre of the mandala.

The disintegration of central power also lead to regionalisation of
religiosity, and religious rivalry. Local cults and languages were
enhanced, and the influence of "Brahmanic ritualistic Hinduism" was
diminished. Rural and devotional movements arose, along with Shaivism
,
Vaisnavism ,
BhaktiBhakti and
Tantra , though "sectarian groupings were
only at the beginning of their development". Religious movements had
to compete for recognition by the local lords.
BuddhismBuddhism lost its
position after the 8th century, and began to disappear in India. This
was reflected in the change of puja-ceremonies at the courts in the
8th century, where
HinduHindu gods replaced the
BuddhaBuddha as the "supreme,
imperial deity".

The Brahmanism of the
Dharmashastras and the smritis underwent a
radical transformation at the hands of the
Purana composers, resulting
in the rise of
Puranic Hinduism, "which like a colossus striding
across the religious firmanent soon came to overshadow all existing
religions".
PuranicHinduismHinduism was a "multiplex belief-system which
grew and expanded as it absorbed and synthesised polaristic ideas and
cultic traditions" It was distinguished from its Vedic Smarta roots
by its popular base, its theological and sectarioan pluralism, its
Tantric veneer, and the central place of bhakti.

The early mediaeval
PuranasPuranas were composed to disseminate religious
mainstream ideology among the pre-literate tribal societies undergoing
acculturation . With the breakdown of the
GuptaGupta empire, gifts of
virgin waste-land were heaped on brahmanas, to ensure provitable
agrarical exploitation of land owned by the kings, but also to
provide status to the new ruling classes.
Brahmanas spread further
over India, interacting with local clans with different religions and
ideologies. The
Brahmanas used the
PuranasPuranas to incorporate those clans
into the agrarical society and its accompanying religion and ideology.
According to Flood, "he Brahmans who followed the puranic religion
became known as smarta , those whose worship was based on the smriti,
or pauranika , those based on the Puranas." Local chiefs and peasants
were absorbed into the varna , which was used to keep "control over
the new kshatriyas and shudras." The Brahmanic group was enlarged by
incorporating local subgroups, such as local priets. This also lead
to a stratification within the Brahmins, with some Brahmins having a
lower status than other Brahmins. The use of caste worked better with
the new
PuranicHinduismHinduism than with the sramanic sects. The Puranic
texts provided extensive genealogies which gave status to the new
kshatriyas. Buddhist myths pictured government as a contract between
an elected ruler and the people. And the Buddhist chakkavatti "was a
distinct concept from the models of conquest held up to the kshatriyas
and the Rajputs."

ome incarnations of
VishnuVishnu such as Matsya, Kurma, Varaha and perhaps
even Nrsimha helped to incorporate certain popular totem symbols and
creation myths, specially those related to wild boar, which commonly
permeate preliterate mythology, others such as Krsna and Balarama
became instrumental in assimilating local cults and myths centering
around two popular pastoral and agricultural gods.

The transformation of Brahmanism into Pauranic
HinduismHinduism in post-Gupta
IndiaIndia was due to a process of acculturation . The
PuranasPuranas helped
establish a religious mainstream among the pre-literate tribal
societies undergoing acculturation. The tenets of Brahmanism and of
the
Dharmashastras underwent a radical transformation at the hands of
the
Purana composers, resulting in the rise of a mainstream "Hinduism"
that overshadowed all earlier traditions.

RamaRama and
KrishnaKrishna became the focus of a strong bhakti tradition, which
found expression particularly in the
Bhagavata PuranaBhagavata Purana . The Krishna
tradition subsumed numerous Naga, yaksa and hill and tree based cults.
Siva absorbed local cults by the suffixing of Isa or Isvara to the
name of the local deity, for example Bhutesvara, Hatakesvara,
Chandesvara. In 8th-century royal circles, the
BuddhaBuddha started to be
replaced by
HinduHindu gods in pujas. This also was the same period of
time the
BuddhaBuddha was made into an avatar of Vishnu.

The first documented bhakti movement was founded by
Karaikkal-ammaiyar . She wrote poems in Tamil about her love for Shiva
and probably lived around the 6th century CE. The twelve
AlvarsAlvars who
were Vaishnavite devotees and the sixty-three
NayanarsNayanars who were
Shaivite devotees nurtured the incipient bhakti movement in Tamil Nadu
.

Shankara (8th century CE) is regarded as the greatest exponent of
Advaita Vedanta. Shankara himself, and his grand-teacher
GaudapadaGaudapada ,
were influenced by Buddhism. Gaudapda took over the Buddhist
doctrines that ultimate reality is pure consciousness
(vijñapti-mātra) and "that the nature of the world is the
four-cornered negation".
GaudapadaGaudapada "wove into a philosophy of the
Mandukya
Upanishad , which was further developed by Shankara".
GaudapadaGaudapada also took over the Buddhist concept of "ajāta" from
Nagarjuna\'s
Madhyamaka philosophy. Shankara succeeded in reading
Gaudapada's mayavada into Badarayana's
BrahmaBrahma Sutras, "and give it a
locus classicus", against the realistic strain of the
BrahmaBrahma Sutras.

Shankara is the founder of the
Dashanami Sampradaya of Hindu
monasticism and
Shanmata tradition of worship. Shankara is also
regarded as the greatest teacher and reformer of the Smartha
Tradition . According to Hinduism-guide.com:

Not all Brahmins specialized in this
Smriti tradition. Some were
influenced by Buddhism,
JainismJainism or
Charvaka tradition and philosophy.
This did not mean that all these people rejected the authority of
Vedas, but only that their tradition of worship and philosophy was
based not on smriti texts. In time, Shankaracharya brought all the
Vedic communities together. He tried to remove the non-smriti aspects
that had crept into the
HinduHindu communities. He also endeavoured to
unite them by arguing that any of the different
HinduHindu gods could be
worshipped, according to the prescriptions given in the smriti texts.
He established that worship of various deities are compatible with
Vedas and is not contradictory, since all are different manifestations
of one nirguna
Brahman . Shankaracharya was instrumental in reviving
interest in the smritis.

Under the
AbbasidAbbasid caliphate,
BaghdadBaghdad had replaced
Gundishapur as the
most important centre of learning in the then vast Islamic Empire ,
wherein the traditions as well as scholars of the latter flourished.
HinduHindu scholars were invited to the conferences on sciences and
mathematics held in Baghdad.

Though
IslamIslam came to
Indian subcontinentIndian subcontinent in the early 7th century
with the advent of Arab traders, it started impacting Indian religions
after the 10th century, and particularly after the 12th century with
the establishment and then expansion of Islamic rule . Will Durant
calls the
MuslimMuslim conquest of
IndiaIndia "probably the bloodiest story in
history". During this period,
BuddhismBuddhism declined rapidly while
HinduismHinduism faced military-led and Sultanates-sponsored religious
violence. There was a widespread practice of raids, seizure and
enslavement of families of Hindus, who were then sold in Sultanate
cities or exported to Central Asia. Some texts suggest a number of
Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam. Starting with 13th century,
for a period of some 500 years, very few texts, from the numerous
written by
MuslimMuslim court historians, mention any "voluntary conversions
of Hindus to Islam", suggesting its insignificance and perhaps rarity
of such conversions. Typically enslaved Hindus converted to
IslamIslam to
gain their freedom. There were occasional exceptions to religious
violence against Hinduism.
AkbarAkbar , for example, recognized Hinduism,
banned enslavement of the families of
HinduHindu war captives, protected
HinduHindu temples, and abolished discriminatory
Jizya (head taxes) against
Hindus. However, many
MuslimMuslim rulers of
Delhi SultanateDelhi Sultanate and Mughal
Empire , before and after Akbar, from 12th century to 18th century,
destroyed
HinduHindu temples and persecuted non-Muslims .

UNIFYING HINDUISM

HinduismHinduism underwent profound changes, aided in part by teachers such
as
RamanujaRamanuja , Madhva , and Chaitanya . Followers of the Bhakti
movement moved away from the abstract concept of
Brahman , which the
philosopher
Adi ShankaraAdi Shankara consolidated a few centuries before, with
emotional, passionate devotion towards the more accessible Avatars ,
especially
KrishnaKrishna and Rama. According to Nicholson, already between
the 12th and the 16th century, "certain thinkers began to treat as a
single whole the diverse philosophical teachings of the Upanishads,
epics, Puranas, and the schools known retrospectively as the "six
systems" (saddarsana) of mainstream
HinduHindu philosophy." Michaels
notes that a historicization emerged which preceded later nationalism,
articulating ideas which glorified
HinduismHinduism and the past.

The official
State religion of the
Mughal EmpireMughal Empire was
IslamIslam , with the
preference to the jurisprudence of the
Hanafi Madhhab (Mazhab).
HinduismHinduism remained under strain during
Babur and Humanyun's reigns.
Sher Shah Suri, the Afghan ruler of North
IndiaIndia was comparatively
non-repressive.
HinduismHinduism came to fore during the three-year rule of
HinduHindu king '
HemuHemu ' during 1553-56 when he had defeated
AkbarAkbar at Agra
and Delhi and had taken up the reign from Delhi as a Hindu
'Vikramaditya' king after his 'Rajyabhishake' or coronation at 'Purana
Quila ' in Delhi. However, during Mughal history, at times, subjects
had freedom to practise any religion of their choice, though
Non-
MuslimMuslim able-bodied adult males with income were obliged to pay the
Jizya (poll-tax to be spent by the State only on protection of
non-Muslims), which signified their status as
Dhimmis (responsibility
of the State, in regard to safety of life and property).
Photograph of the
SuryaSurya Temple, The most impressive and grandest ruins
in Kashmir, at Marttand-Hardy Cole's Archaeological Survey of India
Report 'Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in Kashmir.' (1869)

AkbarAkbar , the Mughal emperor
HumayunHumayun 's son and heir from his Sindhi
queen Hameeda Banu Begum, had a broad vision of Indian and Islamic
traditions. One of Emperor
AkbarAkbar 's most unusual ideas regarding
religion was
Din-i-IlahiDin-i-Ilahi (
FaithFaith of God), which was an eclectic mix of
IslamIslam ,
Zoroastrianism , Hinduism,
JainismJainism and
ChristianityChristianity . It was
proclaimed the state religion until his death. These actions however
met with stiff opposition from the
MuslimMuslim clergy, especially the Sufi
Shaykh Alf Sani
Ahmad Sirhindi . Akbar's abolition of poll-tax on
non-Muslims, acceptance of ideas from other religious philosophies,
toleration of public worship by all religions and his interest in
other faiths showed an attitude of considerable religious tolerance,
which, in the minds of his orthodox
MuslimMuslim opponents, were tantamount
to apostasy .

Akbar's son,
JahangirJahangir , half Rajput, was also a religious moderate,
his mother being Hindu. The influence of his two
HinduHindu queens (the
Maharani Maanbai and Maharani Jagat) kept religious moderation as a
centre-piece of state policy which was extended under his son, Emperor
Shah JahanShah Jahan , who was by blood 75%
Rajput and less than 25%
MoghulMoghul .

An important development during the British colonial period was the
influence
HinduHindu traditions began to form on Western thought and new
religious movements . An early champion of Indian-inspired thought in
the
WestWest was
Arthur SchopenhauerArthur Schopenhauer who in the 1850s advocated ethics
based on an "Aryan-Vedic theme of spiritual self-conquest", as opposed
to the ignorant drive toward earthly utopianism of the superficially
this-worldly "Jewish" spirit.
Helena BlavatskyHelena Blavatsky moved to
IndiaIndia in
1879, and her Theosophical Society , founded in New York in 1875,
evolved into a peculiar mixture of Western occultism and Hindu
mysticism over the last years of her life.

Hinduism-inspired elements in
Theosophy were also inherited by the
spin-off movements of
Ariosophy and
Anthroposophy and ultimately
contributed to the renewed
New Age boom of the 1960s to 1980s, the
term
New Age itself deriving from Blavatsky's 1888 The Secret Doctrine
.

As of 2007, of an estimated 944 million Hindus, 98.5% live in South
Asia. Of the remaining 1.5% or 14 million, 6 million live in Southeast
Asia (mostly
IndonesiaIndonesia ), 2 million in Europe, 1.8 million in North
America, 1.2 million in
Southern AfricaSouthern Africa .

The
Hindutva movement advocating
HinduHindu nationalism originated in the
1920s and has remained a strong political force in India. The major
party of the religious right,
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), since its
foundation in 1980 has won several elections, and after a defeat in
2004 remained the leading force of opposition against the coalition
government of the Congress Party . The last national general election,
held in early 2014, saw a dramatic victory of BJP; it gained an
absolute majority and formed the government, with
Narendra Modi as
Prime Minister .

The new
HinduHindu communities in Java tend to be concentrated around
recently built temples (pura) or around archaeological temple sites
(candi) which are being reclaimed as places of
HinduHindu worship. An
important new
HinduHindu temple in eastern Java is Pura Mandaragiri Sumeru
Agung , located on the slope of Mt.
Semeru , Java's highest mountain.
Mass conversions have also occurred in the region around Pura Agung
Blambangan, another new temple, built on a site with minor
archaeological remnants attributed to the kingdom of
Blambangan , the
last
HinduHindu polity on Java, and Pura Loka Moksa
Jayabaya (in the
village of Menang near Kediri).

In the 20th century,
HinduismHinduism also gained prominence as a political
force and a source for national identity in India. With origins traced
back to the establishment of the
HinduHindu Mahasabha in the 1910s, the
movement grew with the formulation and development of the Hindutva
ideology in the following decades; the establishment of Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1925; and the entry, and later success, of
RSS offshoots
Jana Sangha and
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in
electoral politics in post-independence India.
HinduHindu religiosity
plays an important role in the nationalist movement.

Smart (1993 , p. 1), on the other hand, calls it also one of the
youngest religions: "
HinduismHinduism could be seen to be much more recent,
though with various ancient roots: in a sense it was formed in the
late 19th Century and early 20th Century." See also:

* ^ There is no exact dating possible for the beginning of the
Vedic period. Witzel mentions a range between 1900 and 1400 BCE.
Flood mentions 1500 BCE.
* ^ Lockard (2007 , p. 50): "The encounters that resulted from
Aryan migration brought together several very different peoples and
cultures, reconfiguring Indian society. Over many centuries a fusion
of Aryan and Dravidian occurred, a complex process that historians
have labeled the Indo-Aryan synthesis." Lockard: "
HinduismHinduism can be seen
historically as a synthesis of Aryan beliefs with Harappan and other
Dravidian traditions that developed over many centuries."
* ^ Hiltebeitel (2007 , p. 12): "A period of consolidation,
sometimes identified as one of "
HinduHindu synthesis," Brahmanic
synthesis," or "orthodox synthesis," takes place between the time of
the late Vedic
Upanishads (c. 500 BCE) and the period of Gupta
imperial ascendency" (c. 320-467 CE)."

* White (2006 , p. 28): "he religion of the
Vedas was already a
composite of the indo-Aryan and Harappan cultures and civilizations."
* Gombrich (1996 , pp. 35–36): "It is important to bear in mind
that the
Indo-Aryans did not enter an unhabitated land. For nearly two
millennia they and their culture gradually penetrated India, moving
east and south from their original seat in the Punjab. They mixed with
people who spoke Munda or Dravidian languages, who have left no traces
of their culture beyond some archaeological remains; we know as little
about them as we would about the
Indo-Aryans if they had left no
texts. In fact we cannot even be sure whether some of the
archaeological finds belong to Indo-Aryans, autochthonous populations,
or a mixture. It is to be assumed - though this is not fashionable in
Indian historiography - that the clash of cultures between Indo-Aryans
and autochtones was responsible for many of the changes in Indo-Aryan
society. We can also assume that many - perhaps most - of the
indigenous population came to be assimilated into Indo-Aryan culture.

* ^ A B The date of the production of the written texts does not
define the date of origin of the
PuranasPuranas (Johnson 2009 , p. 247). They
may have existed in some oral form before being written down (Johnson
2009 , p. 247).
* ^ A B Michaels (2004 , p. 38): "The legacy of the Vedic religion
in
HinduismHinduism is generally overestimated. The influence of the mythology
is indeed great, but the religious terminology changed considerably:
all the key terms of
HinduismHinduism either do not exist in Vedic or have a
completely different meaning. The religion of the
VedaVeda does not know
the ethicised migration of the soul with retribution for acts (karma),
the cyclical destruction of the world, or the idea of salvation during
one's lifetime (jivanmukti; moksa; nirvana); the idea of the world as
illusion (maya) must have gone against the grain of ancient India, and
an omnipotent creator god emerges only in the late hymns of the
rgveda. Nor did the Vedic religion know a caste system, the burning of
widows, the ban on remarriage, images of gods and temples, Puja
worship, Yoga, pilgrimages, vegetarianism, the holiness of cows, the
doctrine of stages of life (asrama), or knew them only at their
inception. Thus, it is justified to see a turning point between the
Vedic religion and
HinduHindu religions." See also Halbfass 1991 , pp.
1–2
* ^ University of Oslo: "During the period following Ashoka, until
the end of the 7th century AD, the great gift ceremonies honoring the
BuddhaBuddha remained the central cult of Indian imperial kingdoms".

* ^ Samuel (2010 , p. 76): "Certainly, there is substantial textual
evidence for the outward expansion of Vedic-Brahmanical culture."
Samuel (2010 , p. 77): "he Buddhist sutras describe what was in later
periods a standard mechanism for the expansion of Vedic-Brahmanical
culture: the settlement of Brahmins on land granted by local rulers."
See also Vijay Nath (2001) .

Samuel (2010 , p. 199): "By the first and second centuries CE, the
Dravidian-speaking regions of the south were also increasingly being
incorporated into the general North and Central Indian cultural
pattern, as were parts at least of Southeast Asia. The
PallavaPallava kingdom
in South
IndiaIndia was largely Brahmanical in orientation although it
included a substantial Jain and Buddhist population, while Indic
states were also beginning to develop in Southeast Asia." * ^
Larson (1995 , p. 81): "Also, the spread of the culture of North India
to the South was accomplished in many instances by the spread of
Buddhist and Jain institutions (monasteries, lay communities, and so
forth). The Pallavas of Kanci appear to have been one of the main
vehicles for the spread of specifically Indo-Brahmanical or Hindu
institutions in the South, a process that was largely completed after
the
GuptaGupta Age. As Basham has noted, "the contact of Aryan and
Dravidian produced a vigorous cultural synthesis, which in turn had an
immense influence on
Indian civilization as a whole."
* ^ Flood (1996 , p. 129): "The process of
Sanskritization only
began to significantly influence the south after the first two
centuries CE and Tamil deities and forms of worship became adapted to
northern
SanskritSanskrit forms."
* ^ Wendy Doniger: "If
Sanskritization has been the main means of
connecting the various local traditions throughout the subcontinent,
the converse process, which has no convenient label, has been one of
the means whereby
HinduismHinduism has changed and developed over the
centuries. Many features of
HinduHindu mythology and several popular
gods—such as Ganesha, an elephant-headed god, and Hanuman, the
monkey god—were incorporated into
HinduismHinduism and assimilated into the
appropriate Vedic gods by this means. Similarly, the worship of many
goddesses who are now regarded as the consorts of the great male Hindu
gods, as well as the worship of individual unmarried goddesses, may
have arisen from the worship of non-Vedic local goddesses. Thus, the
history of
HinduismHinduism can be interpreted as the interplay between
orthoprax custom and the practices of wider ranges of people and,
complementarily, as the survival of features of local traditions that
gained strength steadily until they were adapted by the Brahmans."
Vijay Nath (2001 , p. 31): "
Visnu and Siva, on the other hand, as
integral components of the Triad while continuing to be a subject of
theological speculation, however, in their subsequent "avataras "
began to absorb countless local cults and deities within their folds.
The latter were either taken to represent the multiple facets of the
same god or else were supposed to denote different forms and
appellations by which the god came to be known and worshipped. Thus
whereas
Visnu came to subsume the cults of
Narayana ,
JagannathaJagannatha ,
VenkateswaraVenkateswara and many others, Siva became identified with countless
local cults by the sheer suffixing of Isa or Isvarato the name of the
local deity, e.g., Bhutesvara, Hatakesvara, Chandesvara."
* ^ Wendy Doniger: "The process, sometimes called
"Sanskritization," began in Vedic times and was probably the principal
method by which the
HinduismHinduism of the
SanskritSanskrit texts spread through the
subcontinent and into Southeast Asia.
Sanskritization still continues
in the form of the conversion of tribal groups, and it is reflected in
the persistence of the tendency among some Hindus to identify rural
and local deities with the gods of the
SanskritSanskrit texts."
* ^ See also Tanvir Anjum, Temporal Divides: A Critical Review of
the Major Schemes of Periodization in Indian History.

* ^ Different periods are designated as "classical Hinduism":

* Smart (2003 , p. 52) calls the period between 1000 BCE and 100 CE
"pre-classical". It is the formative period for the
Upanishads and
Brahmanism
JainismJainism and Buddhism. For Smart, the "classical period"
lasts from 100 to 1000 CE, and coincides with the flowering of
"classical Hinduism" and the flowering and deterioration of
Mahayana-buddhism in India.
* For Michaels (2004 , pp. 36, 38), the period between 500 BCE and
200 BCE is a time of "Ascetic reformism", whereas the period between
200 BCE and 1100 CE is the time of "classical Hinduism", since there
is "a turning point between the Vedic religion and
HinduHindu religions".
* Muesse (2003 , p. 14) discerns a longer period of change, namely
between 800 BCE and 200 BCE, which he calls the "Classical Period".
According to Muesse, some of the fundamental concepts of Hinduism,
namely karma, reincarnation and "personal enlightenment and
transformation", which did not exist in the Vedic religion, developed
in this time.
* Stein (2010 , p. 107) The Indian History Congress, formally
adopted 1206 CE as the date medieval
IndiaIndia began.

* ^ Called such, so as to distinguish them from the modern
Dravidian populations of India, which are of predominantly Australoid
racial stock

* ^

* Thani Nayagam (1963) : "... together with the evidence of
archaeology would seem to suggest that the original Dravidian-speakers
entered
IndiaIndia from Iran in the fourth millennium BC ...".
* Kumar (2004) : "The analysis of two Y chromosome variants, Hgr9
and Hgr3 provides interesting data (Quintan-Murci et al., 2001).
Microsatellite variation of Hgr9 among Iranians, Pakistanis and
Indians indicate an expansion of populations to around 9000 YBP in
Iran and then to 6,000 YBP in India. This migration originated in what
was historically termed
ElamElam in south-west Iran to the Indus valley,
and may have been associated with the spread of Dravidian languages
from south-west Iran (Quintan-Murci et al., 2001)."
* Mukherjee et al. (2011) : "More recently, about 15,000-10,000
years before present (ybp), when agriculture developed in the Fertile
Crescent region that extends from Israel through northern Syria to
western Iran, there was another eastward wave of human migration
(Cavalli-Sforza et al., 1994; Renfrew 1987), a part of which also
appears to have entered India. This wave has been postulated to have
brought the Dravidian languages into
IndiaIndia (Renfrew 1987).
Subsequently, the Indo-European (Aryan) language family was introduced
into
IndiaIndia about 4,000 ybp ...".

* ^ Cordaux et al. (2004) : "Our coalescence analysis suggests
that the expansion of Tibeto-Burman speakers to northeast
IndiaIndia most
likely took place within the past 4,200 years."
* ^ Doniger (2010 , p. 66): "Much of what we now call
HinduismHinduism may
have had roots in cultures that thrived in
South AsiaSouth Asia long before the
creation of textual evidence that we can decipher with any confidence.
Remarkable cave paintings have been preserved from Mesolithic sites
dating from c. 30,000 BCE in Bhimbetka , near present-day Bhopal, in
the Vindhya Mountains in the province of Madhya Pradesh."
* ^ Jones & Ryan (2006 , p. xvii): "Some practices of
HinduismHinduism must
have originated in Neolithic times (c. 4,000 BCE). The worship of
certain plants and animals as sacred, for instance, could very likely
have very great antiquity. The worship of goddesses, too, a part of
HinduismHinduism today, may be a feature that originated in the Neolithic."
* ^ Mallory 1989 , p. 38f. The separation of the early Indo-Aryans
from the
Proto-Indo-Iranian stage is dated to roughly 1800 BCE in
scholarship.
* ^ Michaels (2004 , p. 33): "They called themselves arya
("Aryans," literally "the hospitable," from the Vedic arya, "homey,
the hospitable") but even in the Rgveda, arya denotes a cultural and
linguistic boundary and not only a racial one."
* ^ There is no exact dating possible for the beginning of the
Vedic period. Witzel (1995 , pp. 3–4) mentions a range between 1900
and 1400 BCE. Flood (1996 , p. 21) mentions 1500 BCE.
* ^ Allchin Harmatta 1992)."
* ^ Kulke & Rothermund (1998) : "During the last decades intensive
archaeological research in Russia and the Central Asian Republics of
the former Soviet Union as well as in
PakistanPakistan and northern
IndiaIndia has
considerably enlarged our knowledge about the potential ancestors of
the
Indo-Aryans and their relationship with cultures in west, central
and south Asia. Previous excavations in southern Russia and Central
Asia could not confirm that the Eurasian steppes had once been the
original home of the speakers of Indo-European language."
* ^ The
Aryan migration theoryAryan migration theory has been challenged by some
researchers (Michaels 2004 , p. 33, Singh 2008 , p. 186), due to a
lack of archaeological evidence and signs of cultural continuity
(Michaels 2004 , p. 33), hypothesizing instead a slow process of
acculturation or transformation (Michaels 2004 , p. 33, Flood 1996 ,
pp. 30–35). Nevertheless, linguistic and archaeological data clearly
show a cultural change after 1750 BCE (Michaels 2004 , p. 33), with
the linguistic and religious data clearly showing links with
Indo-European languages and religion (Flood 1996 , p. 33). According
to Singh 2008 , p. 186, "The dominant view is that the Indo-Aryans
came to the subcontinent as immigrants."
* ^ Zimmer's point of view is supported by other scholars, such as
Niniam Smart, in Doctrine and argument in Indian Philosophy, 1964,
p.27-32 & p.76, (Crangle 1994 , p. 7) and S.K. Belvakar & R.D. Ranade
in History of Indian philosophy, 1974 (1927), p.81 moksa/nirvana - the
goal of human existence."
* ^ King (1999) notes that
RadhakrishnanRadhakrishnan was a representative of
Neo-
VedantaVedanta , which had a specific understanding of Indian religions:
"The inclusivist appropriation of other traditions, so characteristic
of neo-
VedantaVedanta ideology, appears on three basic levels. First, it is
apparent in the suggestion that the (Advaita)
VedantaVedanta philosophy of
Sankara (c. eighth century CE) constitutes the central philosophy of
Hinduism. Second, in an Indian context, neo-
VedantaVedanta philosophy
subsumes Buddhist philosophies in terms of its own Vedantic ideology.
The
BuddhaBuddha becomes a member of the
VedantaVedanta tradition, merely
attempting to reform it from within. Finally, at a global level,
neo-
VedantaVedanta colonises the religious traditions of the world by arguing
for the centrality of a non-dualistic position as the philosophia
perennis underlying all cultural differences."
* ^ Michaels (2004 , p. 38): "At the time of upheaval , many
elements of the Vedic religion were lost".
* ^ Hiltebeitel (2007 , p. 13): "The emerging self-definitions of
HinduismHinduism were forged in the context of continuous interaction with
heterodox religions (Buddhists, Jains, Ajivikas) throughout this whole
period, and with foreign people (Yavanas, or Greeks; Sakas, or
Scythians; Pahlavas, or Parthians; and Kusanas, or Kushans) from the
third phase on .
* ^ Larson (2009 , p. 185): "n contrast to the sruti, which "Hindus
for the most part pay little more than lip service to."
* ^ Michaels (2004 , p. 40) mentions the
DurgaDurga temple in Aihole and
the
VisnuTempleTemple in Deogarh . Michell (1977 , p. 18) notes that
earlier temples were built of timber, brick and plaster, while the
first stone temples appeared during the period of
GuptaGupta rule.

* ^ McRae (2003) : This resembles the development of Chinese Chán
during the An Lu-shan rebellion and the Five Dynasties and Ten
Kingdoms Period (907–960/979) , during which power became
decentralised end new Chán-schools emerged.
* ^ Inden (1998 , p. 67): "Before the eighth century, the Buddha
was accorded the position of universal deity and ceremonies by which a
king attained to imperial status were elaborate donative ceremonies
entailing gifts to Buddhist monks and the installation of a symbolic
BuddhaBuddha in a stupa This pattern changed in the eighth century. The
BuddhaBuddha was replaced as the supreme, imperial deity by one of the Hindu
gods (except under the Palas of eastern India, the Buddha's homeland)
Previously the
BuddhaBuddha had been accorded imperial-style worship (puja).
Now as one of the
HinduHindu gods replaced the
BuddhaBuddha at the imperial
centre and pinnacle of the cosmo-political system, the image or symbol
of the
HinduHindu god comes to be housed in a monumental temple and given
increasingly elaborate imperial-style puja worship."
* ^ Thapar (2003 , p. 325): The king who ruled not by conquest but
by setting in motion the wheel of law.
* ^ Inden: "before the eighth century, the
BuddhaBuddha was accorded the
position of universal deity and ceremonies by which a king attained to
imperial status were elaborate donative ceremonies entailing gifts to
Buddhist monks and the installation of a symbolic
BuddhaBuddha in a
stupa....This pattern changed in the eighth century. The
BuddhaBuddha was
replaced as the supreme, imperial deity by one of the
HinduHindu gods
(except under the Palas of eastern India, the Buddha's
homeland)...Previously the
BuddhaBuddha had been accorded imperial-style
worship (puja). Now as one of the
HinduHindu gods replaced the
BuddhaBuddha at
the imperial centre and pinnacle of the cosmo-political system, the
image or symbol of the
HinduHindu god comes to be housed in a monumental
temple and given increasingly elaborate imperial-style puja worship."
* ^ The term "mayavada" is still being used, in a critical way, by
the Hare Krshnas. See
* ^ See also "Aurangzeb, as he was according to Mughal Records";
more links at the bottom of that page; for
MuslimMuslim historian's record
on major
HinduHindu temple destruction campaigns, from 1193 to 1729 AD, see
Richard Eaton (2000),
TempleTemple Desecration and Indo-
MuslimMuslim States,
Journal of Islamic Studies, Vol. 11, Issue 3, pages 283-319
* ^ The tendency of "a blurring of philosophical distinctions" has
also been noted by Burley (2007 , p. 34). Lorenzen locates the origins
of a distinct
HinduHindu identity in the interaction between Muslims and
Hindus (Lorenzen 2006 , pp. 24–33), and a process of "mutual
self-definition with a contrasting
MuslimMuslim other" which started well
before 1800 (Lorenzen 2006 , pp. 26–27). Both the Indian and the
European thinkers who developed the term "Hinduism" in the 19th
century were influenced by these philosophers (Nicholson 2010 , p. 2)
* ^ Many historians consider
Attock to be the final frontier of the
MarathaMaratha Empire.
* ^ This conjunction of nationalism and religion is not unique to
India. The complexities of Asian nationalism are to be seen and
understood in the context of colonialism, modernization and
nation-building . See, for example,
Anagarika Dharmapala , for the
role of
TheravadaBuddhismBuddhism in Sri Lankese struggle for independence
(McMahan 2008 ), and
D.T. Suzuki , who conjuncted
ZenZen to Japanese
nationalism and militarism , in defense against both western hegemony
and the pressure on Japanese
ZenZen during the
Meiji Restoration to
conform to
Shinbutsu BunriShinbutsu Bunri (Sharf 1993 , Sharf ">

Subnotes

* ^ Ghurye: He considers modern
HinduismHinduism to be the result of an
amalgam between pre-Aryan Indian beliefs of Mediterranean inspiration
and the religion of the Rigveda. "The Tribal religions present, as it
were, surplus material not yet built into the temple of
Hinduism".(Ghurye 1980 , p. 4)
* ^ Tyler, in India: An Anthropological Perspective(1973), page 68,
as quoted by Sjoberg, calls
HinduismHinduism a "synthesis" in which the
Dravidian elements prevail: "The
HinduHindu synthesis was less the
dialectical reduction of orthodoxy and heterodoxy than the resurgence
of the ancient, aboriginal Indus civilization. In this process the
rude, barbaric Aryan tribes were gradually civilised and eventually
merged with the autochthonous Dravidians. Although elements of their
domestic cult and ritualism were jealously preserved by Brahman
priests, the body of their culture survived only in fragmentary tales
and allegories embedded in vast, syncretistic compendia. On the whole,
the Aryan contribution to Indian culture is insignificant. The
essential pattern of Indian culture was already established in the
third millennium B.C., and ... the form of Indian civilization
perdured and eventually reasserted itself (Sjoberg 1990 , p. 43).
* ^ Hopfe -webkit-column-width: 30em; column-width: 30em;
list-style-type: decimal;">